Carabao Cup first round draw on Friday

The draw for the first round of the Carabao Cup will take place on Friday 15 June.

Steve McManaman, Louis Saha and Dennis Wise are preparing to head to Vietnam, to make the draw from Ho Chi Minh City at 10.45am UK time.

It is the second successive season that Carabao Cup draws have taken place overseas, with events being staged in Bangkok and Beijing last season as part of the EFL’s continued efforts to build the value of the competition outside the UK.

The new-look draw will see 70 EFL teams split into Northern and Southern sections, but with no seeding for higher ranked sides as in previous seasons.

Matches are scheduled to take place on the week commencing 13 August.

EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey will be present in Vietnam, alongside Carabao Energy Drink CEO Sathien Setthasit, in a country where football is immensely popular amongst its population of 95 million people and is also a key market for Carabao Energy Drink.

EFL Chief Executive, Shaun Harvey, said: “A principle aim of our partnership with Carabao has always been to promote the competition internationally, taking high-profile activities such as the competition draws overseas to support the EFL’s international growth strategy and raise awareness of the competition in Carabao’s key territories.

“There is no requirement for us to take draws overseas, but there is an absolute commitment to building the value of our competition outside the UK and the market in Vietnam should help the EFL and Carabao meet our shared ambitions.

“At the EFL’s recent 2018 Summer Conference, clubs voted to a number of rule changes in the Carabao Cup including the removal of extra time which should help address team selection and additional fatigue issues that can sometimes be caused when mid-week ties go beyond 90 minutes.

“Seeding arrangements have also been removed from the first two rounds which should make for some interesting early round draws.”

The format of penalties will revert to the traditional format, as opposed to the recently trialled ABBA formula, which will no longer feature in EFL competitions.

Championship newcomers Stoke and Swansea will join the competition in round two alongside the Premier League clubs that are not competing in Europe.